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Londoners must pay £114,000 for old-age care before state aid, Labour warns

Londoners will be forced to pay £114,000 for old-age care before getting any state help under government plans, Labour claimed today.

Shadow care minister Liz Kendall said a Coalition promise that no one would face a bill higher than £72,000 for care was a “con”. Labour said that most people in the capital would die before they became eligible for state help.

Proposals to reform the care system are passing through Parliament and include a pledge that from 2016 no one will have to pay for more than £72,000 worth of care. When an individual’s costs rise beyond that “cap” the state would cover the costs. But Labour said the system used the rate councils pay for care which, because they buy in bulk, is normally lower than an individual would be charged.

Ministers have also admitted that money people pay for accommodation costs will not count towards the cap. Labour says that when these two factors are taken together Londoners will pay £114,000 before the state offers help. In the South-East people will have to pay £154,000, the party said, and the average for the UK is £151,000.

The average stay in a care home is just under two and a half years before a resident dies and Labour says the plan would see people paying their own costs for between three and six years.

Ministers today claimed the cap would encourage the insurance industry to develop policies to cover the fees.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “These misleading calculations will unnecessarily worry people about how much their care might cost. The Government is introducing the first ever cap so that people no longer have to live in fear of unlimited care costs or that they will be forced to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for care.”